


Better Late Than Never

by Absolutely_Corrupted



Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Original Character-centric, Post-Chuunin Exams, Self-Insert, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:41:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27482125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Absolutely_Corrupted/pseuds/Absolutely_Corrupted
Summary: Jenna's life used to be boring. So boring that she'd wished for a chance to leave it all behind.Now she's some long-lost Uchiha clanswoman, appearing out of nowhere a full seventeen years after she was declared dead in the Third Shinobi War. Sasuke is already gone and her foreknowledge is practically useless, just like her newly awakened mangekyo sharingan.Oh, and did she mention her new name is Squirrel?
Comments: 17
Kudos: 114





	1. Chapter 1

_“_ _—rrel!”_

The first sense to return is touch.

_“Can you hear_ —”

It’s hot. Painfully, unnaturally hot. Beneath her, the ground is firm and uncomfortable. Above her, dry air washes over her face and partially exposed midriff. The skin tingles, feeling just as tight and sensitive as it had the last time she’d had a sunburn.

Vision comes next.

It sends a sharp jolt of pain behind her eyes and through her temples, but she manages to peel her eyelids back just far enough to make out an overcast sky above her.

_Why am I outside?_

Smell and hearing return at the same time.

_“Damn it, Squirrel! If you don’t answer me right now_ —”

The gruff male voice cuts off abruptly when she starts coughing. After a brief pause, it returns to say something else, but she’s too busy trying to expel the scorched air from her lungs, missing all but the last word. _“—soon!”_

The sky swirls above her, distracting her from the voice in her ear. It’s then that she realizes that the sky isn’t overcast. It’s obscured by smoke.

_That’s a lot of smoke,_ she thinks. And then, when something subconscious urges her to move, _Why is that bad again?_

She lays there, blinking stupidly, until unconsciousness pulls her away.

* * *

The days that follow are confusing. And not just because she’s suffered a mild brain injury.

_“Seventeen years?!”_

According to Risu’s hazy memories, the mission they’d just returned from had taken place in the late fall of the year 112.

Somehow, the Konoha they return to exists in the early spring of the year 129.

Her captain is understandably upset by the news.

Their interrogator frowns. “Our records indicate the town of Hokubo-chō was destroyed nearly seventeen years ago, yes. It was one of Iwa’s last major aggressions against us before the Third War drew to a close. Records indicate all that’s left is a crater of scorched earth.”

“Well, your records are _wrong._ ” Nezumi-taichou spits the words with derision. “We just came from Hokubo-chō. Aside from a small fire and some structural damage caused by an explosion set by a member of Iwa’s Explosion Corps, the town is fine.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Perhaps it would be more expedient to send a team to confirm Hokubo-chō’s state.” Risu cuts in, speaking up for the first time since their arrest. “Seeing as you are disinclined to take our word for it.”

Nezumi-taichou scoffs before their interrogator has the chance to reply. “You can’t honestly believe this shit, Risu.” Though her given name is Risu in this life, her captain does not know it. He is instead calling her by her codename - which just so happens to be Risu as well, thanks to some ANBU administrator with a sense of humor. “This is some sort of ill-advised prank. Or a genjutsu—”

Risu flashes red eyes at her captain. “Not a genjutsu, captain.”

Their interrogator drops his pen with a noisy clatter. “...You’re an Uchiha?” he asks quietly.

“Yes?” Risu exchanges a baffled look with her captain before realization hits her. _Seventeen Years._ She does a quick calculation in her head. The clan head’s son was nearly two when Risu and her team left for the northern border. _Oh god… The clan’s already dead, isn’t it?_

She doesn’t outwardly react, but it’s a near thing.

Their interrogator is not nearly so composed. “Excuse me,” he says in a hoarse whisper, hurriedly exiting the room.

“...What was that about?”

Risu shrugs uncomfortably.

* * *

Things start progressing much faster, after that.

Soon, a man with burn scars on his arms and weathered features is brought to meet them. His face is stony as he flashes through the signs which identify him as a team member.

Nezumi-taichou splutters something between a laugh and a sob. _“Usagi?”_ And then the emotion is gone, wiped clean as if it had never existed in the first place. “No,” he says calmly. “I won’t believe this lie. Kai. _Kai!”_ The calm shatters all too quickly when he realizes there is nothing to dispel.

Risu can hardly believe it either. Last she knew, Usagi was a surly teen a few years older than herself. He’d been tan and handsome, with long blonde hair nearly as well cared for as her own brown mane. Now, he looks _old._ His hair is cropped short and he’s tired and rundown in a way that is completely at odds with the grumpy arrogance he used to wear so well.

“It’s Sora, actually,” said the man. “I haven’t been Usagi in years.” He strides forward to collapse into the seat across from Risu and her captain. The same one the interrogator had used. “I’m guessing Momonga didn’t make it?”

Risu blanches and only Nezumi-taichou’s hand on her shoulder keeps her from curling in on herself. “...No. The Iwa-nin killed him before detonating some sort of suicide technique.”

Usagi — _Sora_ now — leans forward. “How big was the explosion?”

Nezumi-taichou scowls. “Large enough to utterly destroy a building and knock Risu senseless for three days. Why?” His tone is aggressive and even though some part of him must already know the truth, she can tell he’s hoping for proof that this is all some sort of hoax. _You and me both, captain._

“That’s odd,” says Sora. “Because the explosion I witnessed seventeen years ago was large enough to utterly engulf the town.” His expression darkens. “Certainly large enough to reduce my teammates to dust. So tell me, _what sort of game are you playing?_ ”

“I think it’s my fault.”

It’s only when both Nezumi-taichou and Sora turn to her that Risu realizes she’s spoken.

“Explain,” her captain orders.

With a grimace, she does. She tells them both about Momonga’s death, how she’d fought the Iwa-nin to a standstill while their captain was preoccupied with the rest of his team, but had been too slow to prevent his final attack. “There are certain clan techniques,” she says slowly, choosing her words carefully, “That can only be awakened with the loss of a loved one.”

Nezumi-taichou’s eyebrows creep upwards, comically surprised despite the heavy topic. “You and Momonga?”

Sora snorts. “They weren’t exactly subtle about it.”

Risu has to agree. With the advantage of a grown woman’s lifetime of memories in addition to her own, the steps she and Momonga had taken to hide their mutual infatuation had been paltry at best.

She soldiers on, ignoring the mixture of embarrassment and grief that wells in her chest. “I saw the beginnings of the technique and I knew it would be bad. I knew I wouldn’t get far enough to outrun it...” she trails off. “I poured more chakra into my eyes in a last ditch effort to stop him.”

“So what? You transported an entire town seventeen years into the future?” Nezumi-taichou shakes his head. “There’s some crazy clan techniques out there, I’ll admit. But time travel?”

  
“I know it sounds insane.” _Almost as insane as ending up in a fictional universe._ “But what other explanation is there?”


	2. Chapter 2

Needless to say, there is no alternate explanation.

Their ridiculous story spreads. Interrogators come one after another, but not a single one is able to discredit them. Risu and her captain know all the appropriate codes and passphrases. It's all seventeen years out of date, but that only lends credence to their tale.

Even Sora, who had come into the room determined to prove them wrong, has a hard time remaining skeptical. In fact, sometime after his thirtieth failed attempt to trip them up, he seems to forget that he's there to interrogate them. He spends nearly twenty minutes shooting the breeze with Nezumi-taichou before a superior wises up and escorts him from the room.

Eventually, when the blood tests come back with affirmative matches and no one can deny their claims any longer, the Hokage comes.

She sits across from Risu and Nezumi-taicho and doesn't bother with questions. "I'm going to be honest with you — you've picked a terrible time to come back from the dead."

"Tsunade-hime?" Nezumi-taichou's expression falls somewhere between relieved and baffled. _"You're_ the Fourth Hokage?"

"Fifth, actually." Risu, who already knows this, does her best to look surprised. "But that hardly matters now," says Tsunade brusquely. "It's more important that we bring you up to date on current events. You've missed a great deal in the last seventeen years." Reminded abruptly of the fucking _massacre,_ Risu barely withholds a sarcastic ‘no kidding.’ "A little over a year ago, the traitor Orochimaru and his forces allied with Suna and launched an invasion on Konoha during the final stage of the chunin exams." Nezumi-taichou chokes on nothing. "Since then, our forces have been running themselves ragged so as not to present a vulnerable target to the other nations." She stares between them evenly. "At this point in time, the news that two war heroes have returned from the dead and saved a town would bolster our reputation."

Risu and her captain share a wary look, before Nezumi-taichou gives in to the unspoken prompt. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you're about to be very, very famous."

Nezumi-taichou cracks up. "Wait. _Wait._ You're telling me I survived a suicide technique strong enough to level a town and ended up seventeen years in the future, only to end up as some sort of propaganda figure?" He shakes his head and his dark hair goes flying. "No way. I’m Anbu through and through. I'd rather die."

Tsunade snorts unattractively and leans back just far enough to look down her nose at him. "Too late. We've already started to receive reports of Hokubo-chō’s miraculous reappearance. We don’t have time to spin some elaborate cover story. In this case, the truth is our best -possibly _only_ \- option.”

He crosses his arms and tilts his own head to mirror her. “Then use Risu and keep me out of it. It’s her fault we’re in this mess.”

“Hey.” The sudden and unexpected venom in his voice gets her hackles up, even as a small voice tries to remind her that _this isn’t real_ and there’s no need to get emotional. “I’m the reason you’re still alive, _Nezumi_.”

"That's not an option either," Tsunade interjects, completely ignoring the by-play. "With village security running on a skeleton crew, news of a man back from the dead won't stay secret for long. Especially when that man has been gone for the same amount of time as Hokubo-chō." She meets Nezumi's eyes with a sympathetic frown. "I'm sorry, but there's just no keeping this under wraps." When she speaks again, her tone and expression are implacable. "As soon as I leave, the two of you will be escorted to the hospital for treatment. You will be debriefed on current events while you heal, and when you've caught up sufficiently, you will return to the active mission roster."

There is only one thing they can say to that. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Good." Tsunade motions to one of her guards before nodding towards Nezumi. "Take him first. I need to have a few words with the girl."

Without a word, Nezumi and the mysterious Anbu agent vanish.

She takes in Tsunade's wan expression and makes an educated guess as to why she's been held back. A moment later, she's proven right when the woman says, apropros of nothing, "The Uchiha Clan no longer exists."

This time it's Risu's turn to choke on nothing. "You-!" _That's_ how she chooses to broach the subject? Sure, Tsunade has a reputation for bluntness and a surprisingly poor bedside manner, but this is beyond the pale! _"I beg your pardon?"_ she tries to phrase it like a question, but mostly it comes out sounding like some sort of accusation.

"Six years ago, the heir to the Uchiha Clan went mad and slaughtered everyone except for his eight-year-old brother."

Risu doesn't need to feign shock. The callous delivery has caught her offguard. Again. "I-" 

Tsunade cuts her off before she can come up with an appropriate response. "Uchiha Itachi is still at large. His younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke, defected to Orochimaru's side shortly after the invasion." She steeples her fingers and levels Risu with a solemn stare. "You are currently the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha."


End file.
